Poetry:
Rajeshwor Karki
Brother Kaliparey1, You look so nice!
Kalipari dai kati ramro!
Dhaka topi kadhaima galbandi!!2
When these lines in the voice of Taradevi echoed in the hills
And reverberated in the front yards of the village houses
Earlier, I felt that Kaliparey housed in my mental frame
Wearing dhaka cap and muffler on his shoulders
Graciously walked inside my own house
Taking pride in his own leadership!
Not only in the songs, but when Kaliparey
In real walked through our front yards those old days
Wearing dhaka cap and muffler on his shoulders
Made the plants and flowers sway in dance
With the music from his high tuned Phillips brand radio
I was overwhelmed to see brother Kaliparey
Who almost appeared like a divine figure for me!
Kalipari dai kati ramro!
Dhaka topi kadhaima galbandi!!
Those days—
The bystander villagers appeared as if they were saluting him in honor
From the edges of their yards
As if the beloved is welcoming her lover after many years
With the beauty of her face
Kaliparey and his beloved
Looked like the prince and the princesses of a story
As if we were watching the best drama choreographed in a theater.
Kalipari dai kati ramro!
Dhaka topi kadhaima galbandi!!
After twenty years
We, the villagers, have again become the bystanders
Watching a special tragic drama
The heroine is lying near the door like a living-dead
The dead body of the hero is lying flat on the mobile set’s screen
The dead body wears a tag as if it is a commodity of some kind
Villagers bid the final farewell to Kaliparey through the mobile screen
Kaliparey will never descend to the yard from the mobile screen
And the Phillip –radio will never resonate in the village again…!
After the curtain of the play drops,
In the growing silence of evening that was turning dark…
There came a dim sound of the mobile’s ringtone
Kalipari dai kati ramro!
Dhaka topi kadhaima galbandi!!
Again, today
I am suffocated by Kaliparey’s image
That belongs to the remote distant than the life I lived.
When I woke up, the pillow like a country
Was drenched by my sweat!
Translated from Nepali by Keshab Sigdel
Note:
1 “Kaliparey” is a typical expression to address a person who has crossed the river Kali especially for employment in Indian cities.
2 These two lines can be roughly translated as:
“Across the Kali, a man looks very handsome
In his traditional dhaka cap, and muffler on his shoulders”
